


Pallas Rising

by Wanderingcourier



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, It's completely platonic dont get ur hopes up, Jasper is also mentioned, Momswap, Momswap AU, Platonic Relationships, as is Rose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 14:18:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11853333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wanderingcourier/pseuds/Wanderingcourier
Summary: Peridot was left behind. Lapis is currently working very hard to leave thoughts of Rose behind. It works out, sort of.Momswap AU, sort of pre-canon.





	Pallas Rising

**Author's Note:**

> Completely platonic relationships, woohoo. Based loosely off a tumblr post by Iztarshi.

The ground hurt her feet. Peridot lifted one foot after the other as she stood in place, frowning to herself. Why did they _hurt?_ Something akin to instinct whispered that there ought to have been something more than her uniform between the soft skin of her feet and the rocky ground, but Peridot could not fathom as to what should have been there.

A faint impression of something like boots ( _thick and heavy and solid beneath her_ ) flitted through her mind. Peridot blinked, and the moment passed.

She glanced behind her, looking at the rows upon rows of identical holes next to her own. Far away, a rock tumbled down the canyon’s side. If there were so many holes identical to hers, where were the other gems?

A sudden sound startled her out of her ponderance, and Peridot frantically scanned her surroundings. Long shadows appeared from behind the corner of the rock face, broad and looming. Peridot crouched and tensed, unsure of what was supposed to be happening but certain that this was incorrect.

The booming voices and their great shadows grew closer, and the panic rose like bile in the green gem. In a sudden snap, Peridot turned and ran, her body collapsing onto all fours easily, naturally. She skidded, rounding behind a large boulder and wedging herself into a crevice where the cliff face and the slab of rock met.

Peridot could not see who the frightening shadows belonged to from her hiding spot, but she could hear the two gruff voices speaking to each other.

“Let's see… There should be a couple Peridots around here. Three or four hadn’t emerged by yesterday’s sweep.” There was a groan, a soft clatter of gravel being scattered along the ground by a careless foot.

“Seriously? We’re doing a sweep for three or four? This is gonna take forever. I just want to get off this stupid belt and get back to homeworld already.”

“A clear out is a clear out, Agate.”

A heavy sigh. “Yeah, yeah. I hate sweep duty. It’s such a pain, trying to catch the little pebbles. Dunno why they make ‘em so fast nowadays, it’s not like they go anywhere dangerous.”

“You have a long range destabilizer. Quit whining.”

“I don’t _like_ poofing them, though. They’re so small, I just feel… I dunno, rude doing it. I dunno why they even make era twos, you’d be better off with a couple of era ones for every hundred era twos.”

The boots were passing by the boulder, blocking what little light shone into the crevice. “It’s not up to us to determine how a gem should be made. That’s for the Diamonds to decide.”

“Of course. I’m just--”

“You’re _just_ questioning the rationale of the Diamonds. Now pipe down, you know how panicky the little things can get.”

The second voice grunted, but said nothing. Peridot held still in her hiding spot until the sound of footfalls faded away, and, her mind whirling, resolved to stay hidden until the danger of the “sweep” was gone.

 

* * *

 

The sky had become dark by the time Peridot dared emerge from the crevice. Three more times, the strangers had passed by her hiding place. Each time, Peridot had become more fearful, more tempted to burst out and flee. She had clenched her hands, nails digging into her palms ( _incorrect_ ) as she tried to talk herself out of taking flight. To run would be futile. She had gleaned that, at least, from her overheard conversation.

But shortly after the third trip, she had felt the ground beneath her shake. She had squeaked and cowered, but no boots approached her. All she had heard was a deep humming, a vibration that had filled her body and resonated within her gem. She had looked up, and seen a great ship, a vibrant, shining green vessel, rising up into the atmosphere. The ship continued to rise, until it looked no larger than the bits of gravel by Peridot’s feet and then--

It was gone.

Peridot had fixed her gaze after the ship in awe for a long time. There was a certain hollowness in her chest as she wondered at the spot the ship had been.

Peridot, now standing freely in the open, looked into the black sky and considered whether or not she had made a mistake.

* * *

 

For once, Lapis wished that space was not so silent. She longed for the rush of water, for the thump of her wingbeats. The white noise would have been distracting, comforting.

But the rush of the ocean would require her to return to Earth. Earth was loud, and the ocean wide and welcoming, but the Earth was where Rose was _not_. Rose was not, and would never be again.

So Lapis had left, the same day as Rose, because if Lapis was where Rose never had been then maybe she could keep pretending that everything was alright, and that she would return to a gentle scolding for disappearing for so long, for taking risks and wandering to where she would not be welcomed if she was discovered.

The silence was getting to her. If Lapis could hear the rush of the ocean, then she could have thought about that instead. Could have lost herself in the noise and the life and the promise of freedom.

But returning ment facing the truth, and Jasper, and that little organic thing that Rose left behind. It had a name. Lapis did not care to remember it. Greg had held it in his arms, had turned to Lapis, but Lapis had already turned to take flight. She had heard Jasper calling after, but had not bothered to parse the words.

Lapis did not tire of flying, not like she might if she was fighting or out on a mission. She could probably fly forever.

Tracing the expanse before her, she turned, angling her course towards a yellow dwarf star. If she was correct, this star had a small asteroid belt orbiting it-- a failed planet, unable to form together due to the gravity of the gas giant that the belt fell into orbit next to. Lapis had heard of a kindergarten there, years ago. It would only be a few hundred years old now. Perhaps that was enough to drain an asteroid or a dwarf planet.

Either way, Lapis shifted into an older uniform. Lazulis were not so uncommon around comets and asteroids, where there was ice to transport. No one would notice an extra face. More than likely, no one would notice her at all.

________

Peridot no longer counted days. On her own in the canyon, there was no need to. Oh, she had counted days at the beginning. It seemed like something she was supposed to do, and the routine aspect of counting had been somehow appealing. But the days kept coming, and after the four hundredth and thirty-first day, she began to wonder if it mattered anymore. After the seventeen hundredth and sixty-seventh day, she decided that it did not.

Passing the time after that was difficult. Peridot walked up and down the length of the canyon one hundred forty-three times. She climbed as high as she could thirty-four times before she fell hard enough that she did not get up for two days. She poked her head into ninety-two holes (all on the bottom two rows), and decided that there was not enough of a difference between them to care.  

She climbed up one of the massive machines that littered the gorge only once. The legs of the thing had not been as well anchored as she assumed, and the robot toppled onto her.

It was luck that she had stopped counting the days, because Peridot did not know how much time she had lost between that moment of blinding pain and her own sudden consciousness, feet away from the shattered machine.

Peridot spent seventy-three and a half days taking the robot apart. She spent seventy four putting it back together.

She did not approach it again.

After a long, long while, after walking the canyon two hundred and thirteen times more and investigating forty-eight possibly abnormal rocks, Peridot curled up and slept.

And then there were footsteps.

* * *

 

Lapis was right, the dwarf planet was abandoned. Really, it looked like every other kindergarten. Barren, with statue-still injectors standing guard over hole-ridden walls. There was liquid here, in patches beneath the crust. It didn’t matter anymore, Lapis supposed. It would have been a nice excuse one hundred and fifty years ago.

She dropped her shift. The diamond uniform had never much appealed to her anyways, the design uninspired and bland. Let it never be said that the diamonds were a creative bunch.

The kindergarten really was boring, but Lapis could at least pretend to be productive. The injectors were of a different design than the ones on earth-- presumably a newer batch. She crouched next to a fallen robot, tilting her head as she studied the thing. She’d never been good at technology. That had been--

Well. It didn’t matter much now. Lapis could not make heads or tails of the design, but the injectors were definitely sleeker, more refined and possibly a little smaller than the ones on earth. This one must have broken when it fell, as many of the panels were only half attached, hanging awkwardly off. She couldn’t imagine Homeworld allowing such shoddy construction on something as important as an injector.

Lapis sighed, closed her eyes and shook her head. She shouldn’t have come here. There was nothing she could do. She stood up and rolled her shoulders. This was fruitless. The kindergarten was abandoned, whatever life that had dwelled here long dead, and there was really no way of collecting useful data on the advancements Homeworld had made.

She turned around, and met the gaze of a tiny green gem.

The other gem stared at her, eyes wide behind a green visor. They wore the diamond uniform-- were they here to perform a check? Could the kindergarten be scheduled for reactivation? Crap, Lapis wasn’t in any uniform, she was dead if she didn’t do something.

Hyperaware of every drop of liquid around her, Lapis formed her wings, falling into a defensive stance. The other gem was small, probably a techie of some sort. Lapis would just take her out, bubble her and forget the incident.

Lapis held her head high, stepped forward to challenge the other gem.

The little gem hissed and bolted, darting off on all fours, like some sort of animal. More out of surprise than anything else, Lapis gave chase, calling after the smaller of the two.

“Wait! Hey, wait!”

Lapis’s wings granted her a lot of speed, but this other gem clearly knew the layout of the kindergarten better. By the time Lapis had rounded the corner, the green gem was gone.

Bewildered, Lapis stared down the expanse of the canyon. What in the universe had _that_ even been? She lowered herself down to the ground. Who had that gem even been? Obviously she was not part of the Diamond Authority, not when she had been acting half feral.

Perhaps the gem was in the process of corruption? She certainly hadn’t acted civilized. No one really knew what caused corruption in the first place. Maybe it had something to do with where you were. Maybe the kindergartens fostered it. That gem had to have been a kindergarten gem, as Lapis had never even seen that sort of gem before.

If that gem was going to corrupt, Lapis would have to stick around. No use letting the thing rampage around on a dead planet, after all. It would be best to put it out of its misery sooner rather than later.

Lapis took a seat on a nearby rock. No use wasting energy standing. She glanced around again at the small holes lining the walls.

Small holes. Small, like the feral gem. Maybe the gem hadn’t been sent here? Perhaps she was just… left behind. That made sense, Lapis supposed. Maybe the isolation had done something to her, made her act corrupted.

Isolation could do that to a gem.

Lapis probably shouldn’t have cared. Lapis really didn’t need to care. But, well… leaving the other gem alone? Who knew when Homeworld would return? Who knew _if_ Homeworld would return? That gem could be here, alone, for thousands of years. For the rest of her life, even.

The rest of your life was a long time to be alone.

Lapis looked up at the sudden clatter of stone, only to see the small gem scrambling back behind a pile of rocks about twenty feet away. She leaned back. Maybe she could coax the gem into approaching her? After all, the little thing hadn’t outright fled yet.

Even as the thought occurred to her, she could see a peak of pale yellow hair inching out from behind the boulders. Lapis looked deliberately forward, watching the other only with her peripheral vision. That had sometimes worked with cats, back on earth.

Lapis frowned, looking down at her lap. She’d have to go back, if only to take this gem back to the temple. Staying here, where there was little protection from Homeworld, was foolish at best.

But, to go back…

Lapis pushed the thought from her mind. It did not matter right now, when she had not even spoken to the gem. She would wait until she had accomplished that goal.

* * *

 

There was a new thing here. Here. In Peridot’s kindergarten! What was it doing here, being weird and blue and making noises in Peridot’s kindergarten?!

Peridot was going to show it who this kindergarten belonged too. She would kick the thing out!

She just needed some time to observe it. It was, after all, bigger than Peridot. And fast. And it did a thing with the liquid that sometimes bubbled up in tiny little cracks from the ground. None of these things seemed to bode well for Peridot.

She’d do it anyways, though. There wasn’t anything else for her to do.

Maybe if she waited long enough, the thing would leave. The voices left when she waited. The ship left too.

Peridot frowned, unsure why the thought of the ship leaving still made her gut twist unpleasantly.

The thing wasn’t moving, anyways. It was just sitting still. Maybe it was waiting for _Peridot_ to leave. Well, she would show it! She had stayed in this kindergarten for… a lot of days! She would probably stay here for a lot more, too!

Peridot didn’t know why that thought made her frown even more. She gathered her resolve, and bravely peeked out from behind the rock again.

The blue thing’s eyes were closed. Maybe it was asleep. She poked her head out further, and the thing did not move. Its eyes remained closed.

...Well, if it’s eyes were closed, then it couldn’t see her. So, she could investigate it. For weaknesses, of course.

Slowly, ever so slowly, she moved out from behind the rock. She crept towards the thing, every step carefully calculated to be as quiet as possible. She’d never practiced being quiet before. It was so quiet in the kindergarten, she had always felt the need to fill the silence with noise.

She was not yet even halfway to the thing when it shifted. She froze, her eyes trained on the thing, calculating all possible hiding places. If she ducked into a hole, would it be able to reach her? What about back behind the rock? Would that be safe enough? Would Peridot be fast enough?

Seconds stretched into minutes as she kept her eyes trained on the blue thing. It did not move again, and Peridot carefully resumed her travel towards the thing, even slower than before.

She was within a few feet of it when its eyes cracked open. Peridot froze again. It watched her, but it did not move. So, cautiously, Peridot stayed where she was.

“Hey.” It said, and Peridot took a few steps back. It hadn’t moved to attack her yet, but any distance she could get would help if (or when) she needed to run. Its eyes opened a little wider wider. “I won’t hurt you,” it said, “I just want to help you.”

Peridot scowled. “Help?” She repeated suspiciously.

It sat forward a bit and nodded.

“Yeah. I want to help you. I can get you off this planet.”

It was going to take her from the Kindergarten?! No, Peridot didn’t like that at all! She knew the kindergarten, it’s rocks and holes and crevices and echoes. She liked knowing the kindergarten. Going somewhere else, where she knew nothing… no. No way.

She backed away a few more steps, eyes darting around as she considered which hole would be best to hide in. Peridot’s own would be the best hole, obviously, but it was too far away to hide in.

“You can’t take me! I live here!” She cried. It frowned.

“You’re alone here, aren’t you?” It asked slowly.

Peridot’s eyebrows furrowed. What did that have to do with anything?

“So?”

“You don’t want to be alone forever, do you?” It inquired, leaning forward.

Peridot hesitated. She had been on her own so far, and she had been fine. How long could forever really be? But… some small part of her was whispering, _no, I don’t. Not forever._

“Wouldn’t you like someone to talk to? Other gems?” It continued. Was it a gem?

“Are you a gem?” Peridot blurted out. That seemed to throw the blue thing off. It stared at her.

“...Yes. I’m a gem. Have you met any other gems before?”

Peridot shook her head. It was a gem, then. Like her. It didn’t look like her, though.

“...Okay then. Well, uhm. I’m Lapis Lazuli. What’s your name?”

Lapis Lazuli? That… seemed like information Peridot should know. The knowledge seemed to dance tantalizingly just out of her grasp, like the mystery of her size, the way the ground hurt her feet. She didn’t like all these gaps in her knowledge. She pushed them aside, just for now. There were other gaps for her to fill.

“What is ‘name’?” She asked, because that seemed like the question Lapis Lazuli was most likely to answer.

But she didn’t answer Peridot’s question. She just stared at her again.

“What is ‘name’?” Peridot repeated, louder.

“A name is... what you’re called. Or, what you call yourself.” Lapis Lazuli answered, her voice shaking oddly.

Peridot pondered this answer. What she called herself?

“My name,” Peridot boasted, “is Peridot.”

* * *

 

This gem-- Peridot-- had never seen another gem before. Had never spoken to one. Didn’t even know what a _name_ was. It was a wonder this gem was as well spoken as she was. It was a wonder that she even spoke at all!

That settled it. Laps was taking her back to earth. She couldn’t just let her be alone, with no one to speak to, no one to hear her, for the rest of eternity. She wouldn’t stand for it. Jasper would just have to deal.

Thinking of Jasper made her head spin a little. Stars, she’d have to face her again. She’d be mad. And… And Rose wouldn’t be there to settle her.

She clenched her jaw. Jasper could be as mad as she pleased. Rose would have wanted her to take Peridot back to earth and that was that. Jasper couldn’t argue against that.

“It’s nice to meet you, Peridot.” She said, because if she let how frustrated she was show she’d probably just scare Peridot off again.

Peridot nodded sharply. “It is nice to meet you too, Lapis Lazuli.” The syllables of her name seemed to flow strangely out of Peridot’s mouth, like maybe she had never considered that particular order of sounds before. She probably hadn’t.

“Just Lapis is fine. Or just Lazuli.” She said.

Peridot studied her. “But you said that Lapis Lazuli is your name. Do you have two ‘name’?”

...Peridot was going to be a handful.

“I guess you could think of it like that. Just pick one.” Lapis replied, trying not to roll her eyes.

Peridot narrowed her eyes at her, but replied, “Alright… Lazuli.”

Of course she’d pick Lazuli. Well, Lapis had offered her the option. Nothing else she could do about it.

“Well, now that introductions are one with, we should get going.” No point wasting time. Earth was a few weeks away, especially since she’d have to carry Peridot back instead of just herself. At least if she dropped Peridot, she’d float in the zero gravity.

“Going where?” Peridot asked, tilting her head. “We should go to my hole. It’s _very_ nice. Probably the best in the whole Kindergarten!”

That gave Lapis pause. This might get complicated. She stood up, dusting off her skirt. Peridot stiffened a little bit, but at least she didn’t bolt again.

“We’re going to Earth.” She said, her tone a little bit shorter than she intended.

“What is Earth?” Peridot asked, and well yeah. Why would some random gem know the Human-given name for a planet?

“Earth’s the planet I live on.”

Peridot frowned. “Why would we go there? This planet is clearly much better. It’s where _I_ live.”

 _This dwarf planet is a used up ball of barren rock,_ Lapis thought to herself. _And I could find a dozen more just like it in any star system._...But that probably wouldn’t do much to sway Peridot.

“We’re going back to Earth because…” She trailed off. Honestly, Lapis didn’t really want to go back. All her problems were back on Earth, and only one of her problems was on this stupid asteroid. The math, as it were, checked out. But frankly, she didn’t want to spend the next hundred years staring at rocks, or whatever it was Peridot did all day, and there was no way Peridot could behave herself if they ran into any homeworld patrols. So…

“...Because it has fish. And this planet doesn’t. So Earth is better.” Lapis concluded. Which was true, strictly speaking. And fish _were_ nice. They had a lot of bright colors and odd shapes to them, along with a unique sort of graceful movement. It was like being with other gems, but the fish didn’t blather on about court drama or fighting or other dumb things, so really it was better than being with other gems.

“What is fish? Why do they make Earth better?!” Peridot demanded, scowling furiously.

Lapis raised a hand, and formed a silvery little fish construct. Peridot hissed a little, startled, but Lapis payed no heed. The watery fish swum lazy little circles in midair, and Peridot tilted her head again, studying it intently.

“I don’t see the big deal,” She grumbled, “my hole is better than fish.”

The construct darted down to circle Peridot’s head in response, and Peridot swatted at it. Her fingers passed harmlessly through, and Peridot jumped back at the presumably unfamiliar sensation.  

“It got on my hand! Why did it do that?!” Peridot shrieked.

“It’s just water,” Lapis reassured her, “They aren’t made of water on Earth.”

“Well, what are they made of?”

“You sure do ask a lot of questions.” Was Lapis’s only response. There was no way she was gonna give the 'organics' talk right now. Peridot scowled again.

“This planet is still better anyways. It’s got rocks. And robots. And holes.” She listed off, counting on her fingers.

Geez. She sure was attached to this Kindergarten. Of course, it was all she had ever known. What else was she supposed to be attached to? It wasn't as if she had anything else to compare to.

Kindergartens, huh…

Lapis shrugged. “Well, okay. I guess you don’t want to see the Kindergarten on Earth then.” She said cooly. “That’s too bad. It’s got all those things too.”

 _That_ caught Peridot’s attention. Her head whipped back around, no longer paying attention to the water fish still doing laps around her head. “There’s an Earth Kindergarten?!”

“Yup. Two, actually.” _Not that Jasper would ever set foot back in the Beta Kindergarten,_ Lapis added to herself. “Even bigger than this one. Lots more holes and rocks.”

"More holes?!" Peridot’s eyes widened, but she suddenly hesitated.

“...My hole won’t be there, though.” She said, fixing Lapis with a shrewd look. “Where will I live?”

...That wasn’t a bad question. She wasn’t going to just ditch Peridot in the prime Kindergarten after all. Well. Probably not.

“You can live with me.” She said, leaving Jasper out for now. No need to confuse Peridot further by adding another gem into the mix. They could probably make the temple door work for her. They could just give her a star sticker or something until she changed her uniform. Even if they couldn't make the temple let her in, they could just carve out a little cave for Peridot. Maybe install one of those tiny houses for dogs.

“Do you live in a hole? If your hole on Earth?” Peridot asked, her tone lightening a little.

That was a more complex question than Lapis was really going to deal with right now. Peridot was really hitting home with her innocent, if intense, questioning. As for a hole…

“Yeah. It’s a hole. A big hole with enough room for both of us.” That was not technically a lie. It was an entrance to a cliffside, that counted as a hole. 

Peridot perked up a bit at that.

“Okay! We have to see my hole first before we go, though.”

Lapis nodded as Peridot darted off, the fish trailing behind her. She stopped and waited for Lapis to follow, and Lapis obligingly meandered behind Peridot.

* * *

 

 

Saying goodbye to the hole was apparently an emotional experience for Peridot. Lapis didn’t really get it. It looked exactly like all the other holes. Whatever. She exchanged a glance with the fish as Peridot wiped a tear from under her visor.

“I’m ready.” She announced solemnly. Lapis nodded.

Peridot yelped when she picked her up, but she didn’t bite or scratch, which was good. The fish disappeared as Lapis summoned her water wings and took off.  

Peridot clung to her as they approached the atmosphere, looking mournfully down at the dwarf planet. Lapis didn’t look back.

She usually didn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> The secret ending of this story is Lapis getting back only to find that someone went and built a human house right on top of the temple. The super secret end of this story is Jasper dealing with this horrendous gremlin that Lapis dumps on her to go sulk about the house (it's okay, they're besties by the end of it). The double super secret end of this story is Steven and Peridot becoming bros 4 lyfe as soon as they meet. Steven's probably about the age he was in the extended opening by the time Lapis and Peridot get back. Also, writing Lapis is really hard so if I suck at it please feel free to tell me.
> 
> I suck at extended dialogue so naturally I went and wrote a story with about a thousand words of Lapis trying to talk a goblin into flying back to Earth with her. I am a master of fic planning.
> 
> Feel free to drop by my tumblr at thewanderingcourier.tumblr.com if you want to see the dumb stuff I reblog and my sleepy ramblings about werewolves! I also take prompts and requests, sometimes! (blog is nsfw!!)


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